Neopolitan Sky
by Lupus Malum
Summary: The Madman, the Hero and the Metal Girl sit together. Observe them. In a place where nothing is real anymore, they search for a place to start all over again. Would you give up everything to be with the one you love? Would you tell a man you loved him before it was too late? Would you bond with your father? What would you do if you had a second chance?
1. Chapter 1

The Madman, the Hero and the Metal Girl sit together. Observe them. Who are they? Names aren't important. Not in this place of dreams that they're in, anyway. A place of blank and empty. A place of sighs.

They sit in silence, interrupted every so often by the Madman taking a drag from the cigar which hangs between his lips and then exhaling smoke into the emptiness. The Metal Girl stares down at her hands, woven together in her lap. The Hero looks anywhere _but_ the Metal Girl, her eyes clouding over with guilt whenever they rest upon the young face. Observe them.

Seconds tick by. Perhaps minutes. Perhaps hours. It doesn't matter, not in this place of dreams, of sighs, of waking and sleeping yet never sleeping at all, not really. Eons could pass and the unlikely trio would still be sitting in the same place, trying to forget but never quite succeeding. The silence continues. The Madman inhales a lungful of smoke which is no longer really that dangerous anymore. The Metal Girl inspects her fingers, like they hold the key to something that she can't quite remember. The Hero's eyes dart around, flitting from face to face like dust.

"What would you do differently?"

The silence is broken, the Metal Girl looks up and the Hero sits forward slowly, bracing herself against the arms of her chair.

"Excuse me?"

The Madman laughs dryly, letting ash fall from the butt of his cigar onto the ground. It doesn't matter. In this place of light and darkness.  
"What would you do differently?" he repeats, leaning backwards slowly. "What would you do differently, if you could start it all over again?"  
His one visible eye, sweeps slowly from the Hero to the Metal Girl, the other covered by a swatch of hair. The Hero leans backwards again and the Metal Girl straightens up.  
"I don't know," she replies, folding her hands together again. "What would _you_ do differently?"

The eye of the Madman wells with pain and sorrow. "Oh, you know," he replies, taking another breath of smoke. "Everything."

It's the Hero's turn to question him now.  
"Everything?" she asks, caressing the spear that hangs at her side. "What do you mean by everything?"

The Madman hunches over suddenly, and for a moment the Hero thinks that he is crying. But then he straightens up again, dropping the burnt out cigar at his feet.  
"Everything. I'd tell a woman I loved her, for a start."

This hits home with the Hero. She reaches out a hand and slowly clasps the Madman's, pulling herself forward to look him right in the eye.  
"Before it's too late?" she asks, tentatively.

The Madman nods, his swagger gone.  
"I'd ask her to marry me. I'd give up everything else. If I could start all over again, then that's what I'd do differently."

The Hero nods, a single tear welling in her eye. She lets go of the hand of the Madman. "Before it's too late…" she whispers to herself, wrapping her arms around her waist. "I would tell him at the very beginning. Before it's too late. I wouldn't let pride cloud my judgement. And I'd be careful. Very careful."  
For the first time since they had arrived in the place of dust and broken, the Hero looks to the Metal Girl.

"It's alright," says the Metal Girl, tilting her head to one side. "You weren't to know. It wasn't your fault."  
The Hero slumps like a puppet with its strings cut.  
"But it still happened…" she mutters.

"If I could start again…" continues the Metal Girl, kicking her legs against the chair thoughtfully. "I would climb trees. And run and jump and do all the things I didn't have time to do before it was…"

"Too late," finish the Madman and the Hero together, each lost in their own personal sorrow.

"Yes." The Metal Girl pauses. "I would… I would go to school and to the 'shops' and I would 'bond' with my father. If there was a time or a place where I could start all over again ."

This brief insight into each other's souls concluded, the Madman, the Hero and the Metal Girl revert back to their previous state. The Madman smokes. The Hero watches restlessly. The Metal Girl weaves her fingers together in her lap.

The Madman exhales, the smoke clouding the flat air like blood in water. Then he sighs and opens his eyes.

"Could such a place exist, perhaps?"


	2. Chapter 2

The Metal Girl looks up again.

"Could such a place exist?" she repeats.

"What do you mean?" asks the Hero, leaning forward again. Where there has been blankness, and then pain, a dangerous spark now flickers in the Madman's eye.

He whispers, harsh and urgent.

"What if such a place _did_ exist. What if we could start all over again!"

Silence. The Metal Girl is frozen, the machinery in her brain preforming complex waltzes as it processes the idea. The Hero is frozen as well, and hope blossoms in her own eyes. But it is quickly quenched again.  
"There is no such place," she intones, flatly, mimicking the Madman's phrasing of the Idea.

"But what if there _was_ ," repeats the Madman, clutching both of her hands in his own. The Hero frowns, but doesn't pull out of his grasp.

"With grass and trees and a sky with no monsters," exclaims the Metal Girl, sitting up suddenly and clasping her hands together. Her sudden enthusiasm doesn't suit the place of calm and hangs there like an exclamation point, quivering in the mind of the Hero and the Madman.

The Madman slowly lets go of the Hero's hands and sits back in his chair, gazing at the space above the Metal Girl's head.  
"Yes. A sky with no monsters."

The Hero looks at him, hope pushing itself back into her eyes like a fairy tale in the mid of a child.

"A sky… with _no_ monsters," continues the Madman, focusing once again on the Metal Girl. "Pink and cream and brown. And soft. A Neopolitan Sky."

"With stone cities, towering into the sky and villages of wood and brick and straw."

The Madman and the Metal Girl turn to look at the Hero. The Hero herself seems surprised at the words that spill from her mouth.

"Rolling hills and meadows, blue water and green grass…"

The Madman stops mid-flow, lost within his own thoughts. The Hero and the Metal Girl let themselves drift into their thoughts as well. Once again silence settles in the place of mist and fog.

They sit there, all dreaming of something that they can't have, but want so badly. The Metal Girl addresses the Madman. "W-would there be _big_ trees?" she asks shyly, as if they hadn't been sitting together for a long time or no time at all. The Madman nods and crouches down in his chair to look the Metal Girl straight eye to eye.  
"Yes. As many trees as you'd want. With lots of branches…"  
He pauses again.

"When I was small, there was a tree like that at the back of the garden. You could see everything from that tree… it was as older than anything I had ever known…"

He opens his mouth as if to continue, but then stops sheepishly. The Hero and the Metal Girl stare at him like he has sprouted another head.

This is the first thing that the Madman has said that has really let the Hero and the Metal Girl see who he is inside. To share a wish is one thing, but to share the past is another. A tear rolls down the Madman's cheek, without him noticing. The Hero notices, of course, her heart honed to absorb the pain of others, but the Metal Girl is oblivious as she imagines a shining tree sprouting from the ground before her.

"What kind of tree was it?" she asks, her eyes shining.

But the Madman slowly lights another cigar. For him, the time of talking is done. The Metal Girl sits back in frustration.

"Do you know that 443,000 people die of smoking?" she asks, reciting the fact in a precise, computerized voice. "Those things will kill you…"

She trails off, realizing what she has said.

"Oh…" she exclaims, placing a hand over her mouth. "Oh. I- I did not mean to…"

The Hero stares at the Metal Girl, eyes wide with shock. But the Madman hasn't noticed. He looks past the Hero and the Metal Girl at something or someone who he knows that, no matter what he does, he can't have now and the Metal Girl is forgiven her error.


	3. Chapter 3

Time passes, as time is wont to do, but how much time you cannot tell. Not in this place.

At last the Madman shakes himself from the cage of his own thoughts and stretches, like a cat sunning itself.

"Where would this place be?" he asks, hunching back into a sitting position.

It takes a moment for the Hero and the Metal Girl to realize what he is talking about. Then the Metal Girl slowly stands up and brushes imaginary dust off her skirt. The movement is rehearsed, almost as if she had watched another perform it many times and then practiced it many more times herself, until it was seamless. She tilts her head slowly, surveying her surroundings with mechanical precision.

"It could be somewhere Here," she declares at last, offering a hand to help up the Madman. He declines, instead choosing to prop himself up with his cane. The 'Here' lingers like the smoke from the Madman's cigar; questionable and capitalized. The Hero stands up to join them.

"Where _is_ here?" she asks quietly, almost to herself.

The Madman, the Hero and the Metal Girl step away from their seats and out into the blandness. Out into the place of shadow and sunlight. The Madman sighs.

"Nowhere."

The Hero falls silent, biting her lip. The Metal Girl surveys her surroundings again.

"Perhaps…" she starts, relaxing her shoulders so that her hands hang loosely at her sides, "Perhaps this is just a waiting room. Perhaps there is a place where we can start all over again."

The Idea joins the congregation of hanging words, pulsating with a neon light.

The Hero looks to the Madman, who looks back to the Metal Girl. The Metal Girl then turns to look at the Hero.

"Wouldn't it be nice to start again…" muses the Madman, once again becoming lost in his own thoughts. Then he stops and closes his eyes, laughing bitterly.

"But how could I be sure she would be waiting for me?"

The Hero and the Metal Girl wonder at who the 'she' in question could be. They look to one another and then back to the Madman, whose eye has become blank again.

"Of course," replies the Hero softly. "Surely _love_ never dies?"

The Metal Girl watches this exchange, uncertain on whether to comfort the Madman or the Hero. The Madman stares at the space behind the Hero's head. The Hero stares deep inside herself.

"I think," interrupts the Metal Girl loudly, rousing both the Madman and the Hero from out of their separate sorrows.

"I think that if we just started walking then we would find it."

There is a pause.

"In which direction?" asks the Hero, adjusting the shield at her arm. "In which direction?"

"Any direction," replies the Madman, standing up straight. "If this is just a… a waiting room then we could just walk out of it."

The Hero mulls over this idea in her head. "We could just walk? Away?" she inquires at last.

The Metal Girl and the Madman nod.

"Whichever direction we walk, we will find it," states the Metal Girl, nodding her head decisively. She turns to face what could be North or what could be South. In this place of echoes there is no direction. Just eternity. The Madman pivots as well, facing the same direction as the Metal Girl.

"But what if we don't find the place…" sighs the Hero, as the Idea starts to fade in her mind.

The Madman pauses.

The Metal Girl pauses.

The Hero looks from face to face, perhaps for an answer or perhaps to observe their reactions.

Silence once again. It becomes the flat landscape, smoothing it into dusty shape. The Hero finds her gaze wandering from the faces of the Madman and the Metal Girl. They look instead to the ash at the feet of the Madman and the strand of hair which sticks up, defying gravity, from the head of the Metal Girl.

At last, the Madman speaks again.

"Well, anywhere would be better than here, wouldn't it?"


	4. Chapter 4

The landscape is blank and featureless. Occasionally the Metal Girl looks back, at the three chairs which are placed in a circle. Now three dark blots on the horizon, the only indicator that the Madman, the Hero and the Metal Girl had even moved at all.

They walk in silence. The Madman walks in front with the Hero and the Metal Girl following from behind, each focused on their own dream of a new beginning. There are no sign-posts, no other travelers, so the silence prevails and, gradually, the conviction with which the wanderers set off with begins to fade away.

Observe as the conviction in the Madman's eye is replaced with blankness, as the Hero begins to slow her pace, as the Metal Girl becomes more and more fixated upon the chairs which they had left behind. Gradually, even these disappear from sight, and the madman finds himself devoid of any direction. The Hero stops completely and the Metal Girl walks into her. It takes a moment for the Madman to realize that he is without entourage but then even he stops in his futile pilgrimage. He slowly turns back to face the Hero, who is helping the Metal Girl to stand up again after her fall.

"Are we lost?"

These words, the first words spoken since they left their seats, spiral from the mouth of the Metal Girl. They sink immediately into the silence. The Madman sighs and leans on his cane.

"I doubt that it's possible to get lost Here," he says, bitterly. "There's no point. Let's turn back. At least back there we had somewhere to sit."

The Metal Girl's mouth presses itself into a thin line. She nods slowly and turns to face the direction from which they came. The Madman adjusts the hat that rests atop his head and starts walking in the vague direction of the chairs. But, of course, there is no direction and the Madman and the Metal Girl might as well have been walking the way they had started going.

"No."

The Hero folds her arms. "No," she says, stopping the Madman and the Metal Girl in their tracks.  
"We keep going. It's no _use_ imagining about this other place if we never try to get there. We must _want_ to get there. _Really_ want."

The Madman snorts. "That's all very well, sweetheart," he says, turning his head to look at her.  
"But we don't even know if this place exists." A half smile flickers on his lips as some of his old personality comes back to him. But as soon as it arrives, it is gone and the Madman returns to being just that. A Madman.

"NO."

The words are more forceful this time. The Hero places her hands on her hips.  
"If you want something, you _fight_ for it. You _die_ for it."

She lets this last statement hang in the air, as the Madman stiffens and the Metal Girl winces.

The Hero walks around the Madman till she is looking him straight in the face.

"You said that you'd give _everything_ to see the woman you loved again," she says softly, addressing the Madman alone.

"Now you have to follow through with the promise."

The Madman sighs and straightens up. He looks past the Hero, but his eye flashes with conviction once again. Silently, he turns away from the Hero and the Metal Girl and stares into space again. The Hero sighs and leaves him to the mercy of regret. She turns instead to the Metal Girl.

"And you. You said you wanted to see trees. You said you wanted to get closer to your father. You can't give up. You have to keep moving forward."

The Metal Girl nods slowly.  
"Yes. We must keep moving forward."  
She smiles, a great beaming smile which seems out of place alongside the baleful green orbs which are her eyes. Then she turns her head, scanning the place of cobwebs and then stops suddenly. Then the Metal Girl lifts her arm and points into the foggy distance.  
"We should go that way."

The Hero nods and lets the Metal Girl start walking. Then she gently takes the Madman by the arm and leads him along behind her.


	5. Chapter 5

As they progress, in silence, the Madman allows himself to be lead forward by the Hero. The Metal Girl continues forwards, each step calculated. Eventually the Madman slowly frees his arm from the grasp of the Hero's and lights a cigar. He walks slowly forwards, unsupported. Then he stops.

"Has there always been a horizon?"

The Hero and the Metal Girl stop as well. They look forward into the distance, where there is a definite split between the ground and the sky. Although the place of whirling fog still befuddles and confuses, the horizon softens the edges of the non-existence.

At last, the Hero speaks.

"No," she replies, shaking her head.

"There hasn't always been a horizon."

"What does it mean, do you think?" asks the Madman, leaning on his cane, pensively. The silence returns as each individual contemplates this new problem. The silence becomes this place between dreaming and waking but, like all things must, it comes to a grinding halt.

The Hero shrugs. The Metal Girl tilts her head to one side.

"I think," she says, clasping her hands together in front of her, "that it means we are heading in the right direction."

The Madman and the Hero lapse back into the mantra of contemplation, but for the Metal Girl this is conformation enough, and she starts to walk again.

As they walk, the Hero begins to notice that the sky gradually gets darker and then lighter again, as if manipulated by some unseen star. She doesn't mention this to her companions, but she notes it all the same.

Eventually the Hero begins to feel weary and, for the first time since she arrived in the place between living and dying, she finds herself stumbling.

The Hero sinks to the floor, exhausted. A wind seems to pick up around her, and for a moment she forgets that she is Here and instead her mind moves to There.

 _The Hero stands at the foot of a long stair case, looking up to the very top. The people around her are dancing, moving around in couples or groups. She sighs and starts to mount the staircase, the long skirt of her dress swishing around her heels as she climbs.  
_ _"_ _!"  
Someone calls her name and the Hero looks down.  
There He stands, shuffling from foot to foot uneasily._

 _He calls her name again, reaching a hand out imploringly. She opens her mouth to speak, but no words come out. The Hero raises a hand to her throat, moving her lips urgently and wordlessly.  
He is saying something now, but when He opens His mouth, wind comes out instead of words.  
The Hero reaches out for Him, but the wind turns to fog and He slips away from her grasp._

 _The Hero shouts, tears welling in her cheeks as the fog-wind whirls around her, pulling her back from There to Here._

The Hero doubles over, struggling to breathe. The Madman stops, looking back to her and grabs the arm of the Metal Girl. The Metal Girl flinches, but turns around as well. The Hero gasps as air fills her lungs again. Something warm falls down her cheek, and the Hero reaches a hand to her face to find that she is crying.

The Madman slowly sits down on one side of her and the Metal Girl on the other. The Madman pats the Hero on the back awkwardly, in an attempt to comfort her.

The dam has broken. Tears stream from the Hero's eyes as she crouches in wordless grief. The Metal Girl wraps an arm around the Hero's shoulders, and the three sit there in a thick silence which is punctuated only by deep intakes of breath from the Hero.

The empty sky grows dark and heavy and, for the first time perhaps _ever_ , fat droplets of rain fall from the sky in the place of smoke and mirrors.

The Madman pulls the brim of his hat further down his forehead and turns his collar up. The Metal Girl tilts her face to the sky to catch the water, deliciously real and reminding her that perhaps there is a way out of the place.

The Hero doesn't notice, her grief flowing out of her eyes, and she curls into a ball as the shower turns into a downpour.


	6. Chapter 6

The Madman takes off his hat and tilts it forward. A curtain of water, which had collected in the brim, cascades down onto the ground. The Metal Girl and the Hero watch as it slowly is absorbed by the blankness. The Madman secures his hat atop his head and then stands up.

"The horizon is still there," he remarks, placing his hands behind his back. The Hero sniffs, and wipes her eyes with the back of her hand. The Metal Girl stares blankly up at the Madman. He sighs.

"At least we know we're standing on _something_."

The Hero slowly stands up, aided by the Metal Girl.

"Shall we move on?" she asks, brushing herself off, even though the ground is devoid of dust or dirt. The Metal Girl nods and pushes past the Madman to the front of the group. They start walking and the Hero falls into step beside the Madman, who acknowledges her presence by shaking the droplets of water off of his collar and eyeing her ruefully.

As they walk on, in silence, the Madman looks inside himself,, the Metal Girl looks forward to the indefinite horizon and the Hero looks up at the sky. Where nothingness had resided, there now was a watery globe of pale yellow. A sun. Or, what could be described as such. It gave no warmth and the Hero felt that it wasn't new, exactly, but had just come out of hiding and was weak.

"Do you think she's still alive?"

The Hero turns to look at the Madman, unsure if the question was addressed to her or was rhetorical. The Madman turns to look at her.

"Do you think she's still _alive_?" he repeats.

The Hero opens her mouth to answer, wracking her brain for whom the Madman might be referring to, but before she can answer, the Madman continues.

"And, if she _is_ still alive, do you think she's waiting for me?"

The Hero opens and closes her mouth several times. She looks back to the Madman, but his head is bowed in thought. Then the Hero swallows.

"W-well… did you _see_ her die? As in actually see her?"

The Madman shakes his head. "No," he replies, looking back up at the Hero. "But I did see her fall from the top of a plane…"

The Madman sighs deeply and returns to his inner contemplation. The Hero shrugs.

"Well maybe she's still alive then," she declares, swinging her arms at her sides.

The Madman lifts his head again to look at the weak ball of sun.  
"Was there always a sun?" he asks, changing the subject. The Hero frowns and quickens her pace, leaving the Madman to his own insecurities.

As the Metal Girl walks, she imagines, perhaps, that the fog will clear suddenly and reveal to her trees and grass. At a whim she reaches down and brushes the floor with her hand, half-expecting to be met with spiked blades of grass but knowing, deep down, that her hand will encounter no such thing. The ground is smooth and blank, with an invisible coating of gritty dust. It coats the Metal Girl's fingers as her hand lingers too close to the ground, but when she lifts it up to the light there is nothing there. Nevertheless, she wipes it on her skirt, the grit an unnerving reminder of Here. The place…

…of nothingness…

The Metal Girl tells herself, as her internal compass guides her onwards. She finds herself wondering that, if she coated herself in the dust, would she disappear as well?

Thoughts crawl lazily in and out of her head, and the Metal Girl's mind slowly sinks into the monotony of walking. The only sounds are coming from the footsteps of the Hero, who is walking briskly beside her, and an occasional mournful sigh from the Madman, lingering at the back of the group.

These sounds feel like abrupt full-stops against the blank paper of the Place of Nothingness.

In the Metal Girl's mind, it is not a place of many things but of a lack of many things. It pushes itself forward into capitals, like bearings on a compass.

They walk on in silence, guided only by the Metal Girl,

who is guided by the Idea,

The true North on the compass of the Place of Nothingness.


	7. Chapter 7

**Author's note: As the brief holiday period has (unfortunately) come to a close, I find myself with a new influx of various kinds of work. While I will still be publishing chapters at least once or twice a week, they may not be as frequent as previously. Please have patience as I trudge through the monotony of (gasp)** ** _REVISION!_** **Plus a thank you to my brilliant followers, favoriters and all those who have actually read this story more than once. The world is your oyster. Or the oyster is your world. Whichever way round you prefer.**

Eventually the weak yolk of light fades from view and the Madman, the Hero and the Metal Girl find themselves, for the first time in the Place of Nothingness, in night's steeped embrace.

The Metal Girl draws in a breath, clutching at the air before her in wonder.

"It's different," she says softly, moving her fingers slowly.

The Hero shrugs, but waves her hand in front of her as well. Then she shakes her head.

"I can't feel anything different…"

The Metal Girl turns to the Madman, inquiringly, but the question has passed him by. He lights a cigar and slowly sinks down to the floor. The Hero folds her arms and turns to look at him. The Metal Girl lowers her hand back to her side and clenches her fist.

The Madman exhales a cloud of smoke.

"I'm stopping now."

The Hero places her hands on her hips.

"What happened to not giving up?" she asks, narrowing her eyes.

The Madman raises an eyebrow.

"I'm _not_ giving up. I'm tired. So I'm resting."

He smirks and slowly crosses his legs. The Hero rolls her eyes, but the Metal Girl sits down as well. She pats the ground behind her, gesturing for the Hero to join them.

The Hero eventually sighs and slumps down next to the Metal Girl.

As the air grows thicker and darker, the Hero begins to feel smothered. Perhaps by the absence of light, or perhaps by the Madman's smoke.

"Can you put that out please?"

The Hero wafts the air in front of her face to emphasize her complaint, but the Madman just laughs as he exhales another cloud of smoke.

"Not a chance sweetheart," he replies, inhaling another lungful.

"This is the only thing which reminds me I'm still alive."

The Hero opens her mouth to complain, but then closes it again and pulls her knees up under her chin.

"If only we all had something like that," she sighs, rocking gently back and forth.

The Metal Girl frowns.

"At least you knew you were alive once," she protests, clasping her hands suddenly.

"I was never sure."

To look at the Metal Girl now, she would seem the epitome of life perhaps more than life. As she sits in the darkness amongst the cloud of the Madman's smoke and the cloud of the Hero's regret, she is surrounded by a pulsing halo of soft green light. It casts flickering shadows on her companions, changing their appearances and pushing the Metal Girl imagination into overdrive. The Hero's face, stricken with guilt over the Metal Girl's statement, appears to be cast in bronze, like the bust of some ancient goddess. The cloud of smoke which has accumulated around the Madman is tinged softly as well, creating the illusion that he himself is the source of the smoke and not the cigar. The Metal Girl tilts her head and, within moments of these visions appearing before her, the imagery is gone.

The Madman lets the ash fall to the ground and, at last, stubs out the cigar. He looks pointedly at the Hero, who grudgingly nods her thanks. Then she turns to look at the Metal Girl.

"Are you… giving off… heat?"

The Metal Girl starts, broken out of the dredges of her reverie. She lifts one arm and then the other, inspecting the green glow which has tinted to a shade of yellow.

"Y-yes," she exclaims, surprised. "Yes! I am!"

Suddenly the glow vanishes from the Metal Girl's right hand, and she presses it against the Hero's arm.

"You are as well!"

The Hero falls backwards, patting down her bare arms desperately.

"What?"

The Metal Girl laughs. The notes chime out clearly, but feel practiced, like most of the Metal Girl's movements. Then her face goes blankly serious.

"No. As in _real_ warmth."

The Hero rights herself and slowly touches her arm again. Although she is wearing gloves, she can feel the soft warmth radiating from within her. She lifts her hand, expecting to see the familiar dark aura of light, but she jolts suddenly.

A strange noise fills the silence. It takes the Metal Girl and the Hero a moment to realizes it is coming from the Madman.

He is doubled over, laughing helplessly. The Hero finds the laugh unnerving. Unlike the dry laugh of before, this laugh fills the air around them; pressing in upon them. The laugh is unrestrained and more like a hyena's than a human's, and the Hero finds herself reminded of who the Madman was before the Place of Nothingness. A Madman, yes, but more dangerous. Then the Hero feels the soft wind which is caressing her and realizes that perhaps the Madman might be seeing something as well. She reaches out an arm for him, but he suddenly sits up and wipes away the moisture that has formed in his eye.

Silence.

The Metal Girl blinks, staring straight at the Madman. The Hero frowns at the sudden change in demeanor. The Madman lights another cigar.

The Metal Girl finds herself wondering if, perhaps, she imagined the whole outburst, but one glance at the Hero confirms the contrary.

They watch warily as the Madman blows a smoke ring into the cold, what is now obviously night, air. The ghost of a smile flickers across his face, and he adjusts the hat on his head. Then he removes the cigar from his mouth.

"These kids just keep getting weirder and weirder."


	8. Chapter 8

The Madman wakes up suddenly. He stretches and then scratches his head. He hadn't realized that he'd fallen asleep. In fact, this was the first time he had even felt the need to rest since he'd woken up in the Place of Nothingness.

Although the sky was bright a thick fog had descended overnight, coating the landscape with a thick layer of wool.

The Madman idly wafts his hands in front of him, clutching at the fog. Opposite him the Hero stirs, her brow creased into a frown at whatever she sees in her sleep. The Metal Girl sits bolt upright, but her wide eyes are blank and lifeless. The Madman reaches out his hand to touch her, but then withdraws. Perhaps, he wonders as he slowly pulls himself to his feet, that is the closest thing to sleep for the Metal Girl.

Standing up does nothing to clear the fog from his vision, so the Madman sinks back down into a sitting position again. He moves his hand to his pocket for a cigar, but then changes his mind. Almost unintentionally, he finds himself thinking back to before he fell asleep.

The unhinged laughter.

He himself had been surprised when he realized that it was coming from him. He hadn't laughed in a long time. Or, maybe a day. It was hard to tell in the Place of Nothingness.

A chill wind picks up around the Madman as he ponders this fact. Already, the forgetting has taken hold and he cannot recall what he was laughing at. He sighs sadly and reaches for a cigar. The fog seems to press against him, clinging to skin and clothes like a bad smell. He wonders once again how he came to be in the Place of Nothingness. He doesn't notice the wind until it starts stinging his eyes. He squints into the distance, as specks of dust buffet against him. And then suddenly he's not Here. Suddenly he's There.

 _He is standing on the top of some sort of aircraft, watching as She waltzes with the enemy. Wind whips around them as She darts forwards and backwards with her weapon, stabbing and blocking and using the wind like a shield. The Madman watches anxiously, as the wind pushes him backwards. He steps backwards, using his back leg to steady himself. He notices that She doesn't care about the wind, but it worries him anyway. She looks so fragile, there on that vast expanse of metal, with the dark sky and her enemy darting around her. So fragile that the softest on winds could pick her up and whisk her away. The battle moves towards the edge and then…  
It's over.  
The enemy lunges and She loses her balance. As She falls, the Madman calls out to her, but the wind is inside him and around him and he is filled with rage and sorrow and loss as the wind pulls him from There, back to Here._

The Madman has curled himself into a fetal position. He looks up to see the worried faces of the Hero and the Metal Girl as they crouch around him. He opens his mouth to say something, but no words come out.

The Hero slowly helps him sit up again, as the Metal Girl stands up to scan the fog.

Eventually, she stops and looks back at the Hero and the Madman.

"This way," she declares, clapping her hands together.

The Hero nods, stands up and slowly pulls the Madman to his feet.

The Metal Girl starts to walk forwards, checking backwards to see if the Hero and the Madman are still following. The Madman slowly shakes the Hero off and pushes past her to walk behind the Metal Girl.

As the group continue walking, the Hero is reminded of the start of their journey.

As she puts one foot in front of the other, she cannot shake the feeling that, if they keep walking, they will come across three chairs arranged in a circle and, tired by the journey, they'll sit down.

And then they won't move again.


	9. Chapter 9

The Metal Girl stops suddenly. Her brow creases as she turns to look at her companions.

"I can't seem to navigate our way anymore…" she says, looking down at her feet.

The Madman looks pointedly at the Hero, who glares at him. Then she turns to the Metal Girl.

"It's ok," she says, placing a hand on the Metal Girl's shoulder. The Metal Girl flinches, but the Hero ignores it and carries on speaking.

"You did your best. Let's stop for a while and try again later."

She turns to confirm this with the Madman, but he has already sat down and is staring out into the fog. The Metal Girl nods gratefully and sinks into a sitting position herself, crossing her legs beneath her. The Hero, however, walks forward a few paces, scanning the fog for any indication that they have moved.

"You won't find anything…"

The Hero looks back to the Madman, who has pulled his knees up under his chin and is rocking back and forth.

"Not in this place, anyway."

The Hero clenches her fist, a futile gesture of anger in the thick presence of the fog. But, rather than shouting at the Madman, she sighs and lets her hand go slack.

"I know," she says, sitting down next to the Metal Girl. "I… I just thought…"

She doesn't need to finish. The Madman contemplates her from beneath the brim of his hat, the mottled light glinting off his eyes.

The Metal Girl gingerly pats the Hero's arm. The Hero accepts this gesture, taking the Metal Girl's hand in her own and squeezing it.

A warm breeze picks up and the Metal Girl slowly pulls her hand from out of the Hero's grasp, reaching out as if to feel the air. The Hero and the Madman don't seem to feel the breeze, each staring gloomily out into the fog, but it caresses the Metal Girl like an old friend.

The Metal Girl sighs contentedly and lets her mind drift from Here, but not to There… to Somewhere Else Entirely.

 _"_ _Are we nearly there yet Dad?"  
The Metal Girl is sitting in the backseat of a car, kicking the seat in front of her. On her lap sits a brand new rucksack.  
She is younger, her head coming up just below the headrest.  
There is a pause in traffic, and the man in the driver's seat turns round to look into the back.  
"Almost, sweetheart," he says, smiling at the Metal Girl. Then he turns back to look at the road ahead.  
The Metal Girl recognizes him and opens her mouth to say his name, to ask him why he is there, but different words come out.  
"How long?"  
The man in the driver's seat laughs.  
"Impatient to start at school, I see. Well don't worry sweetheart, we'll get you there soon."  
The Metal Girl grins a gap-toothed smile and resumes her attack of the back seat, her feet kicking out a rhythm.  
The memories of Here slowly dissipate and are replaced by new memories, of swings on trees and bubbles. Her mind turns to the idea of a new school, new friends, how exciting that'll be.  
But Penny feels tired, so tired and, as she lets her feet dangle over the edge of her car seat her mind is pulled back from Somewhere Else Entirely to Here._

The Metal Girl opens her eyes and sighs contentedly. She can't remember lying down, or even initiating sleep mode. Perhaps she dreamed?

The Metal Girl frowns and sits up. Beside her the Hero has curled into a ball, a defensive position against the oncoming rest.

The Madman is spread-eagled opposite her, every so often letting out a snore.

The Metal Girl frowns. She has never dreamt before. She can't remember what she even dreamt _about_.

Did she dream?

The Metal Girl sighs and lies back down again. The fog seems to thin around her, leaving her space to breathe, but it presses down upon her clouding her mind. Why is everything so confusing?

And what is this new feeling stirring within her?

She feels loss and sorrow and tiredness like every day in the Place of Nothingness but, for the first time, she feels at peace.

And happy. Confusingly, wonderfully happy.


	10. Chapter 10

**Authors note- Apologies again for the ridiculously large gap between chapters, but these days you can't argue with a 12 mark answer on Elizabeth the First. I cannot promise that this is the last of the chapter gaps (as I like to call them (I know,** ** _super_** **original, right)) but once I regain my Writer's Mojo, I should be back on track. Thanks for bearing with me guys! SHOUT OUTS TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE FOLLOWED OR FAVOURITED! Yes, that was a shout out, because it was in capital letters. Anyway, happy reading!**

By the fifth 'day' the fog begins to clear.

The Madman notices it first; as the dampness, it seems, has affected him the most. He stops suddenly and looks around him, sniffing the air. He opens his mouth to say something to the Hero and the Metal Girl, but they have already walked off. The fog hasn't cleared completely yet, and the Madman knows that, if he doesn't catch up soon, he'll lose them.

"Where are we now?" asks the Metal Girl.

The Madman and the Hero stop.

"Well… you're supposed to be leading the way…" replies the Hero. A bemused smile flickers across her face, but then dies. Her brow creases.

"What do you mean by that?"

The Metal Girl turns slowly to look at the Hero. Then she shuffles from foot to foot, trying to find the correct words. She swallows.

Then, at last, she speaks.

"Well… we seem to have… changed places? As in…" she pauses again, as the Madman and Hero look at her with blank faces. The Metal Girl sighed and tried again.

"When we started, the area didn't register as an… an area. But now it does. If you get what I mean…"

She trails off, as she observes the Hero's expression. She looks pleadingly at the Madman who shrugs and then clears his throat.

"Where before you were not detecting any familiar frequencies, you are now detecting something."

The Metal Girl nods.

"Roughly, yes."

The Madman grins, apparently pleased with himself. The Hero rolls her eyes and turns back to the Metal Girl.

"Does that mean it's not safe to continue?" she asks, placing her hands on her hips.

The Metal Girl turns forwards again.

"No. It is safe to continue, I just thought you'd like to know."

She starts walking quickly, forcing the Hero to break into a jog to catch up to her. The Madman, however, continues to linger at the back of the group. The air smells. Pine needles and smoke.

Although he doesn't realize it, this is the first thing the Madman has smelt in the Place of Nothingness.

The scent curls around him and suddenly he isn't standing in the fog Here, he is standing in a forest in Somewhere Else Entirely.

 _The Madman stares up at the tree, stroking his chin thoughtfully.  
He feels a tugging at his trouser leg and looks down to see a little girl standing there.  
"Is this the right tree Daddy?" she asks, clutching at his leg.  
The momentary shock that fills the Madman dissipates immediately.  
The Place of Nothingness vanishes, like the dust it is made of.  
Roman stoops to pick up his daughter.  
"Yes it is," he replies, bouncing her on his hip.  
"Do you think we'll be able to make a house up there?"  
The little girl nods excitedly, her arms wrapped around his neck.  
"The biggest house!" she shouts, right in his ear.  
Roman winces and then turns around, still holding his daughter.  
A small cottage is in a clearing ahead of him.  
Smoke puffs idly out of the chimney.  
Something is cooking.  
But something catches his attention, and he turns to look the other way.  
In the forest opposite the clearing is a pathway.  
At the end of the pathway stand two figures, a young woman and a shorter girl.  
Roman squints as he tries to recognize them but their backs are turned and they start walking off.  
The child in his arms wriggles, and Roman puts her down gently.  
He stumbles, bumping into the tree.  
Roman is tired.  
As he lets his eyelids droop, he is wrenched from Somewhere Else Entirely and back into Here._

The Madman opens his eyes suddenly, his hand pressed against something. A tree.

A tree with bark and leaves and branches.

The memories are thrust out of the Madman's head as he surveils this new pillar in the fog. The Metal Girl and the Hero are still visible, albeit further ahead.

How could they have missed the tree? They must have just walked right past it.

The tree feels familiar, but it's not like any tree the Madman has seen before. It isn't like the trees from There. The tree is something else entirely.

The Madman recalls the Metal Girl babbling something about trees, before the days were days. Before the fog was fog.

When there was nothing but dust, three chairs and the sensation of being watched.

The Madman shakes the idea from his head and shouts, his voice hoarse and dry.

" _Hey!_ Look at this!"


	11. Chapter 11

**Authors note- Hello! As you know, those busy and terrifyingly festive times are upon us. December heralds the jolly thralls of Christmas and... unfortunately exam week as well. Due to this bizarre combination of the two, production time on Neopolitain Sky will, of course, be in jeopardy. Many apologies and a jolly good bah humbug to you all.  
Thank you for sticking with the story!**

The Metal Girl stands, with her hands clasped in front of her, looking pensively up at the tree. The Hero is circling the sprouting giant, muttering about how it definatly wasn't there when the first passed by. The Madman is looking all around them now.

Although the Hero and the Metal Girl can't see it, the air is starting to clear for the Madman. He sees the outlines of other trees, brushing against the filmy membrane of the fog. He can smell damp and leaves and something old, observing quietly from the wooden boundries of its skin. The Madman places a hand against the rugged trunk. And something comes to him from the back of his mind, almost as if from a dream. He was standing in front of the very same tree, he was certain of it. His vision blurs slightly and he can almost feel a tugging at his trouser leg, but when he looks down there is nobody there. He slumps down onto the grassy floor. When was there grass growing here? The Madman feels himself keeling over, till he is eye to eye with the grey-green stems. The ground is breathing, rising and falling as time fills its lungs. The fog is in the Madman's head now, as he struggles to discern the Place of Nothingness from Somewhere Else Entirely, like something he had seen in a dream.

The Metal Girl hasn't noticed the Madman's collapse. She hasn't noticed the grass either. She is engrossed, staring up into the thick boughs of the tree. Its branches spread out, an umbrella of leaves. Slowly she looks down at her feet. There, at exactly the right height, is a small branch. The Metal Girl tests her weight on it, grabbing onto other small branches which protrude from further up the trunk. The branch holds and the Metal Girl steps up to the next one, grabbing onto higher branches as she goes. The fog clears for her and she can see the forest around her, as she climbs upwards, her thoughts fixed only on what she might find at the top. The thick leaves grow closer, and the Metal Girl knows that she has done this before.

Except she hasn't.

The Hero turns to look at the Madman, curled in a ball on the ground.

She turns to look at the Metal Girl, foot after foot, slowly climbing up the tree.

The Hero walks over to the tree, but the wood is smooth. There are no branches protruding for the Hero to climb on. She vaguely wonders how the Metal Girl got up that high. Her hands seem to be clasping at nothing, as her brain whirs silently, calculating the distance. The Hero sighs and sits down next to the Madman, feeling the blades of grass beneath her hands.

The Madman stares blindly into space, sighing every so often. The Hero lets her eyes close as she leans back against the tree.

A warm breeze brushes around her as she is drawn away from here and into Somewhere Else Entirely.

 _The Hero is sitting in a bedroom.  
It must be hers, she realizes, as the posters and wallpaper are decidedly to her taste.  
Something buzzes in her pocket.  
She reaches in, curiously, and pulls out a thicker sort of Scroll with metal edging.  
As the Hero stares at the glowing screen, she forgets about the Madman and the Metal Girl.  
Pyrrha puts down her phone.  
The doorbell rings.  
"Pyrrrhhhaa! It's for you!"  
Pyrrha hears the voice of her mother and pokes her head around the door.  
"Who is it?" she shouts back, looking down the stairs and into the landing.  
After a pause her mother appears.  
"It's that nice Arc boy come to see you, dear. Do come down."  
Pyrrha feels her heart quicken as she quickly hurries down the stairs.  
She runs to the door and pulls it open…  
But there is nothing there but warm air, and the Hero feels herself stumbling out onto the soft grass outside and back to Here._

The Hero wakes up with a shock. She doesn't know how long she was sleeping, or what she dreamed about, but she feels content.

Beside her, face pressed against the ground, the Madman dreams of houses in trees and little girls with orange hair in bunches.

Up in the leafy branches of the tree the Metal Girl sits, wishing that she had done this when there was still air in her lungs.


	12. Chapter 12

The Madman wakes up at last. His dreams are there, faded images burnt on the periphery of his vision, but he can't quite see them clearly. He notices the Hero, slumped sitting beside him.

"Did I have a daughter?"

The Hero looks at the Madman, like he has sprouted an extra head. And, if he did sprout an extra head, that she wouldn't be surprised.

"You know, like, before… this. Did I have a daughter?"

A different kind of surprise fills the Hero's eyes. This is the first time since the beginning of the Journey that they have talked about There. And then surprise at the fact that she, too, cannot remember There clearly, either. She squints, trying to force her mind to cooperate.

She struggles. All her memories are of the Place of Nothingness and something, niggling at the back of her mind, which she might have seen once in a dream. At last she gives up.  
"Not that I knew of," she sighs. "I'm sorry."

The Madman sighs in reply and rolls onto his back, hands behind his head. From up in the tree, he catches a glint of acid green.

The Metal Girl stares back at him, her head poking over the leaves.

"Are you having the dreams as well?" she asks, from her lofty perch.

The Madman nods and the Hero sits up straighter. With one graceful movement, the Metal Girl somersaults down from the tree and lands, crouching, in front of the Madman. The ground beneath her isn't cracked, despite the force of her landing.

"I can never remember the dream…" starts the Hero, shuffling over to join the impromptu circle, "But I'm sure I have had one once…"

The Metal Girl nods. "I cannot remember much of the dreams either," she says decidedly, clapping her hands. "But there are things like cars and bubbles and school and…" she stops, and the Hero is surprised to see sheepishness pass across the normally-placid face.

"Another life…"

The Madman looks up at the Metal Girl. "In the dreams I think I have a family… and a forest…"  
He sighs and rolls onto his stomach so that he is staring down at the grass.

"But it isn't Here and it isn't There… But I can't remember there anymore…"

He reaches into his coat pocket for a cigar. The Metal Girl and the Hero stare at him curiously.

At the beginning of the Journey, there was nothing in the air but the Madman's smoke. And now there was nothing but air.

"Can't you see it?" asks the Madman, addressing the grass.

The Metal Girl shifts uncomfortably. The Hero, who normally doesn't have much patience for the Madman, bends down to look at him.

"See what?" she asks gently.

"The fog."

The Madman's reply is simple and sharp. He sits up and dusts off his hands, like he'd just been doing some sort of task. He takes the cigar out of his mouth and exhales. The grey smoke winds around him like a viper, like his own personal cloud of fog and the Hero finds herself thinking back to the beginning. To the three chairs… were there only three chairs? The memory is torn with holes. But she can remember the Metal Girl talking to the Madman. Or was it her talking to the Madman?

Or was it the Madman talking to himself?

But the memory is gone, like smoke. Smoke and mirrors. Mirrors…

The Hero snaps back into focus. The Madman is looking at her, his single eye is clouded over, but something final lurks behind it. He lets the ash from his cigar fall to the ground.

"The fog is clearing," he says, looking straight at the Hero. "And then we'll be able to see the sky."

He tilts his head back and laughs.

The laugh is loud and almost animal, and it seems to go on forever.

The Madman stares at the sky, which he is beginning to see through the fog. He can almost imagine milky colors washing across it.

Small droplets of rain start to fall, but the Madman doesn't notice.

The Hero falls back into her stupor, and soon both the Madman and the Hero are dead to the world.

Only the Metal Girl sits now, humming softly to herself. A tune that was sung to her as a baby.

Was she ever a baby? Or was it in a dream.

As the Metal Girl hums, she realizes something about her dreams and her old life.

She can't tell them apart any more.


	13. Chapter 13

**Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties, I lost most of my progress. Luckily I have been able to salvage and improve the work I had waiting... just in time to produce the final chapter of Neopolitan Sky! So thank you to everyone who has stuck with the story and to everyone who read it, whether you followed, favorited, or were just along for the journey. And I think it's about time for** ** _this_** **story to end.**

"Every journey has an end."

The Hero turns to look at the Madman, who is walking beside her.  
"Pardon?" she asks, not fully comprehending his words.  
The Madman turns to look at her, his face blank.

"And end," he explains, "Every journey must have one."

The Hero nods and they continue to walk forward, pushing through the thinning fog.  
She has grown used to the Madman's sudden outbursts of philosophy, emerging briefly from the mask of insanity which he stubbornly upholds.

"Do you think this journey will ever end?"

The Metal Girl has slowed her pace, this time, tilting her head to peer questioningly up at the Madman.  
He shrugs, a single fluid movement.  
"Well," he says, stopping altogether.

"Can you remember the beginning?"

The Metal Girl closes her eyes and searches in her head for the images. But she draws blank after blank. Where once she could recall 'memories' and data to her at ease, there is nothing but the forest and the fog.

She places a hand to her chest.

Radiating through the flesh and bone, a heart beats. Pumping blood throughout the body of the Girl.  
The warmth that emanates from within her is not synthesized. She can no longer calculate her direction.

"Well?"  
The Madman awaits her reply, spreading his arms wide as if addressing an audience.

The Girl lifts her hand from her heart and clasps it within the other one.

"There was…"  
She trails off, the Madman nodding slowly.

She tries again.  
"There was… watching. But now the watcher is…"

The Madman grins widely.

"Perhaps this journey never had a beginning," he declares, clapping his hands.  
"Perhaps this is how it has always been. Trees and fog and a sun that we can't see. Maybe there was nothing else. Even…"  
He hesitates, the word 'before' forming on his tongue.  
But was there ever a before?  
The wind speaks it for him, the cold shiver down the back of the Hero's spine.

"Then… is this a journey at all?" she asks. "Surely, if there is no beginning then there can be no end?"

The Girl and the Madman look at the Hero.

"Well," replies the Madman, as he starts to walk again. "There is only one way to find out."

The Hero and the Girl join him, walking in step.

"Before the forest there was… fog…" frowns the girl, looking down at her feet.

The Madman nods. The Hero closes her eyes, and a glimpse of white comes back to her. But it is gone in an instant.

"And before the fog?"

The Hero looks at the Madman, who hasn't slowed his pace, despite the strange question.

"…there was forest."

The answer rolls of the Hero's tongue before she can stop it. The Girl nods.  
"And before the forest, there was a never-ending dream," she finishes.

The Hero contemplates this, as the trees start to thin around them.

"But with dreams and reality," she replies, her mind suddenly clear, "often it's hard to tell the difference."

"Because there is no reality!" exclaims the Girl, who was formerly Metal.

"No," says the Madman.

"Because they are one in the same."

The Hero grinds to a halt, and the Girl and Madman stop beside her.

They have cleared the forest and are standing in a field. On a hill before them stand four figures. Two men, and a woman holding a little girl.

The Madman starts to run first, and soon it is just the Man who is sprinting across the field.

The Girl and the Hero watch as Roman runs towards the silhouettes. Then the Girl breaks into a jog and soon Penny is standing beside the steady figure of her father.

The Hero, though, is the last to remain.

"But I am not a hero," she whispers; and, with this realization, the Woman lets her spear and shield fall to the floor.

Seven figures stand on the hill now, shadowed by the light of a dying sun. Observe them.  
But where there is sunset there is always sunrise, albeit from a different direction.  
The end of a life, the beginning of a life.

Seven figures where there were once only three, stark against a sky of pink and cream and brown.

A soft sky.

A Neopolitan sky.


End file.
